ABSTRACT
The introduction of new technologies has had a significant influence on teaching, learning and research activities in universities. This has offered university libraries opportunities to provide information resources in a variety of formats. Studies have indicated that e-resources are underutilized in university libraries despite their immense benefits to users. This study investigated the influence of information literacy skills and computer self-efficacy on postgraduate students’ use of e-resources in private university libraries in Nigeria.
The study adopted the survey research design. The study population comprised 2,805postgraduate students in five private universities offering postgraduate programmes in South-West, Nigeria. Multistage sampling technique was used in the selection process. A purposive selection off our faculties/schools from each of the five universities was carried out. Proportionate sampling technique was used to select the sample size of 550 postgraduate students as the respondents for the study. A validated questionnaire was the instrument for data collection. The Cronbach’s alpha values for the constructs ranged from 0.80 to 0.94. The response rate was 88%. Data were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and multiple regression.
Findings revealed that there was a significant positive correlation between information literacy skills and the use of e-resources (r = 0.28, p<0.05). Computer self-efficacy was also found to have a positive correlation with the use of e-resources (r = 0.26, p<0.05). There was a significant joint influence of information literacy skills and computer self-efficacy on the use of e-resources(F(2 : 492) = 22.13; R = .29, R2 = 0.09, Adj. R2 = 0.08; P < .05).
The study concluded that the utilization of e-resources promoted access to current information among postgraduate students in the selected private universities in South-West, Nigeria. The study recommended that the management of private university libraries should ensure a continuous provision of e-resources with adequate information communication technology tools to facilitate their use. The study also recommended that the management of private university libraries should promote the teaching of information literacy skills and computer self-efficacy to postgraduate students in private universities to improve the use of e-resources as well as improve the quality of their academic work.
Word Count: 350
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Content Page
Title Page i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgements iv
Abstract v
List of Tables vi
List of Figures vii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.3 Objective of the Study 12
1.4 Research Questions 13
1.5 Hypotheses 13
1.6 Significance of the Study 13
1.7 Scope of the Study 14
1.8 Operational Definition of Terms 15
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.0 Introduction 18
2.1 E-Resources in Nigerian University Libraries 18
2.2 Use of E-resources in Libraries by postgraduate students 21
2.3 Information Literacy Skills of Student 38
2.4 Information Literacy Skills and Use of E-Resources 43
2.5 Computer Self-efficacy of Students 53
2.6 Computer Self-efficacy and Use of E-resources 55
2.7 Information Literacy Skills, Computer Self-efficacy and E-resources Use 68
2.8 Theoretical Framework 71
2.8.1. The Big 6 Information skills model 71
2.8.2. Self-efficacy Theory 73
Content Page
2.8.3. The Unified Theory of Use and Technology Acceptance 76
2.9 Conceptual Model 79
2.10 Appraisal of Literature 80
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
3.0 Introduction 82
3.1 Research Design 82
3.2 Population 83
3.3 Sample size and sampling Technique 83
3.4 Research Instrument 86
3.5 Validity and Reliability of Instrument 87
3.6 Reliability Assessment 87
3.7 Method of Data Collection 88
3.8 Method of Analysis 88
3.9 Ethical Consideration 89
CHAPTER FOUR: DATAANALYSIS, RESULTS AND
DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
4.0 Introduction 90
4.1 Demographic Variables of Respondents 91
4.2 Presentation of Research Questions 92
4.3. Presentation of Hypotheses 100
4.4 Discussion of Findings 103
CHPATER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary 111
5.2 Conclusion 113
5.3 Recommendations 113
5.4 Contribution to Knowledge 114
5.5 Limitation of the Study 115
5.6 Suggestion for Further Studies 115
REFERENCES 116
APPENDICES 144
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
4.1. Demographic Variables of the Respondents 85
4.2 Purpose of Use of E-resources 86
4.3. Frequency of Use of E-resources 88
Computer Self-efficacy and information Literacy skills 95
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
University libraries are known for providing resources to meet the information needs of those within the university community.Thus, they play supportive role to the university education by providing necessary information resources and services, to ensure that the needs, expectations and aspirations of their users are satisfied. In the past, most university libraries provided information in print format such as print textbooks, newspapers, monographs, magazines and so on, but with the advancement in technology, most libraries have expanded their collections to include electronic resources abbreviated as e-resources. The Anglo- American Cataloguing Rules, Second Edition (AACR2, 2005:p.1) defined an electronic resource as “material (data and/or program(s)) encoded for manipulation by a computerized device. This material may require the use of a peripheral directly connected to a computerized device (e.g., CD-ROM drive) or a connection to a computer network (e.g., the Internet)”. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA, 2012:p.3) definede-resources as “materials that require computer access, whether through a personal computer, mainframe, or handheld mobile device”. From the definitions, it can be deduced that electronic resources require the knowledge and use of computers.
Electronic resources are materials that are available and can be accessed electronically through such computer networked facilities as online library catalogues, the Internet and the World Wide Web, digital libraries and archives, government portals and websites, CD-ROM databases, online academic databases, such as Medline or commercial databases such as LexisNexis (Karunarathna, 2014). Electronic resources are any collection of information created electronically that form part of an electronic record and that is usually stored separately within the digital file making up the electronic record as a whole. Every electronic record consists of at least one digital object , component or element, such as the bits of data that come together to create a word processed document.
For most university libraries, the provision of e-resources has become increasingly important due to the demands of the 21st-century information users who want to find the technologies they are used to outside of the library, in the library. It is, therefore, no longer novel to find electronic encyclopedias, newspapers, books, journals, theses and dissertations,CD-ROM databases, online databases and web-based resources in libraries. The use of electronic resources no doubt has myriad advantages for libraries as users can now access information resources across the globe without restriction which was practically impossible in the past. Lending credence to this view, Dadzie (2007) noted that e-resources provide access to information that might otherwise, be restricted to users due to geographical location or finance constraints as well as to extensive links to additional resources having related contents. University libraries, can, therefore, go beyond the information resources present in the physical library to enable access to information in remote servers. In university community where students are mostly engaged in research activities, the provision of e-resources becomes important considering that the resources contain frequently updated information.
The provision of electronic resources in university libraries plays a prominent role in facilitating access to required information by the users in an easy and quick manner. Electronic information resources, in reality have become essential in the academic environment. They serve as motivating factor to students as they provide them opportunity to transmit, acquire or download, process and disseminate information on any subject of interest. Electronic resources provision makes it possible for users to access new tools and applications for information seeking and retrieval. E-resources have become invaluable research tools that complement the print collection in the traditional library setting. These resources serve as veritable sources of information which students could tap into to aid their class assignments, write research and term papers, search for information on their subject areas and so on.
Due to the several advantages of e-resources such as timeliness, search facilities, remote access and up datedness,they become more indispensable after the arrival of the Internet in the academic environment.The provision of e-resources in tertiary institutions of learning are new ways of gaining quick access to a great number of research information and dissemination globally. As a result of the potential benefits offered by e-resources, they have been embraced by university libraries. Students, especially those at the postgraduate level would benefit from the e-resources if they are well harnessed as they will provide excellent opportunities to access scholarly information which are beyond the reach of libraries due to geographical barrier and limited finances.
Once electronic resources are provided by university libraries, it is expected that students utilize them to justify the investment on such resources. Unlike the federal and state universities in Nigeria which are funded with public money, and which enjoy certain privileges such as the Educational Trust Fund (ETF) which seeks to improve the quality of education in Nigeria through a 2% education tax imposed on the profits of all registered companies and banks in Nigeria and library consortium such as the Nigerian Research and Education Network (NgREN) to which 27 federal universities are currently members (Nigerian Research and Education Network,2016). Private universities, on the other hand, depend mostly on subvention from their proprietors and other internally generated revenue (IGR). In most cases, where funds are made available, the allocation is shared through an agreed upon formula unique to each university which may or may not be favourable to the university library.
Although most university libraries (public or private) spend money in the acquisition of electronic resources, some libraries devote man-hours to harvesting free electronic resources online with the goal of increasing access and use of electronic resources. However, irrespective of what libraries are able to provide, the utilisation of a product or service is very important as it shows the value attached to such product or service. On the other hand, when a service or product is unutilized, it indicates that there is a problem with it. In such situations, it is necessary for library management to critically review the product or service. Use, therefore, becomes a standard for measuring the worth of a library’s product or service. Little wonder then, that some studies have been dedicated to investigating the use of electronic resources in libraries (Egberongbe, 2011; Ajayi, 2014; Islam, 2015; Daramola, 2016).
In the United Kingdom (UK), Ray and Jay (1998) examined students’ use of electronic resources in three universities and found that alarge number of the students use e-resources. For instance, in Saudi Arabia, a similar study came out witha similar conclusion. A lot of researches have been carried out in the area of availability and utilization of electronic resources in Nigerian University libraries (Ozoemelem, 2009; Deng, 2010; Madhusudhan, 2010; Egberongbe, 2011; Komolafe-Opadeji, 2011 and Ndubisi and Udo, 2013;Okite-Amughoro, Makgahlela and Bopape, 2014; Abubakar & Adetimirin, 2015) and majority of these studies found low frequency of use of e-resources. The findings of these studiesgive credence to a major survey of literature carried out by Tenopir (2003) which concluded by noting that while the use of electronic resources by students in developed countries is well-recognised, their use in the less developed countries is still in its infancy. Several reasons such as low bandwidth, erratic power supply, inadequate provision of computers, lack of information literacy skills and low computer self-efficacy were reported to attribute to the low frquency of utilisation of electronic resources in developing countries by the authors.The Internet and various forms of web-enabled technologies are growing exponentially, and many more’ pieces of information are becoming digitized in computers. All these, are to assist students, especially postgraduate students in their learning and research activities.Students are expected to use e-resources while at the university to improve the quality of their academic work. To be successful in the useof the available e-resources, students need to acquire and practice the skills necessary to explore them.Therefore, for effective information search to be achieved by postgraduate students, computer literacy is crucial.
Information literacy skills refer to knowledge of one’s information needs, and the ability to identify, locate, evaluate, organize and effectively create, use and communicate information (The Association of College and Research Libraries, 2000). It is required for active participation in the information society. Indeed, the University of Idaho (2011)clearly stated that “not all information is created equal: some are authoritative, current, reliable, but some are biased, out of date, misleading, false; the amount of information available is going to keep increasing and the types of technology used to access, manipulate, and create information will likewise expand”. To make the best out of the ever-growing list of electronic resources, it is therefore, necessary for u
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